A valve package is installed within a process line to control process flow in industrial applications such as oil and natural gas processing, food and beverage production, and chemical and pharmaceutical processing. Usually a valve package includes a process valve, actuator for opening/closing the valve and a controller configured to control the opening, closing and position of the valve. The valve controller may further have the capability to monitor valve operation and signal an error message if a failure condition occurs. The controller initiates the actuator to open or close the valve. A number of different types of actuators may be used to open/close particular types of valves. For example, a linear actuator may be used to open/close a diaphragm valve; a rotary actuator may be used to open/close a butterfly or ball valve.
Typically, the operation of a valve package is first tested on the bench (i.e. not installed within a process line) to ensure that the valve opens and closes based on signals supplied to the controller and the actuator is sized appropriately for the valve. A reference profile is developed based on this testing to determine how long it takes the valve to open/close and under what operating conditions (supply pressure, exhaust pressure, etc.). Because the valve package is first tested outside an actual process line, particular operating characteristics are not considered when determining these reference profiles. In addition, this out of line testing does not indicate if the valve and actuator are appropriate for a particular process application. For example, if the process flows in a high pressure environment, the actuator may require torque T1 to open and close the valve having size S1. In contrast, if the process flows under low pressure, the torque T2 required to open and close the valve having size S2 may each be lower than torque T1 and size S1. These profiles do not take into account the effects of process flow, environmental parameters (e.g. temperature) and general operating characteristics as the valve function in-line. Thus, there is a need to provide a dynamic method of capturing process conditions of a valve package in line.